1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a debris collecting apparatus, and in particular, but not exclusively, an apparatus for collecting garden debris, of the kind which may be used either in a vacuum mode to suck debris into the apparatus or in a blowing mode to discharge a stream of air from a nozzle so that debris can be blown into piles.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Such debris collecting apparatus is already known. In one such apparatus, a centrifugal impeller is used to blow air through an outlet to which, in the blowing mode, a length of pipe is connected. To operate the apparatus in the vacuum mode, the pipe is disconnected from the outlet of the impeller and connected to its central inlet; in this mode, debris passes through the impeller which will inevitably result in wear to the impeller even though a chopping blade may be mounted on the impeller shaft immediately upstream of the impeller.
In another form of apparatus, air is discharged longitudinally in a jet into the centre of a first tube at a location where a second tube is joined at right angles. In the vacuum mode of the device, air is drawn from the second tube into the first by the jet of air; debris is sucked into an open end of the second tube and passes from there into the first tube to a collecting bag. In the blowing mode, the first tube is closed downstream of the junction with the first tube so that the air discharged into the first tube is forced to travel up the second tube and is blown out of its open end. This apparatus avoids the problem of passing debris through the impeller but there is a danger of debris becoming stuck as it passes from the second tube into the first in the vacuum mode. The very nature of garden rubbish including long thin objects such as twigs makes this is is a real problem.